Empowered women

The disgusting and rotten scenes described in the grand jury report of Dr. Kermit Gosnell's trial should not be as shocking as they are. For the generations who have learned about the atrocities at Auschwitz, My Lai and Phnom Pen in Cambodia, it should come as no surprise that humans are capable of heinous, vicious crimes.

Yet, Dr. Gosnell's trial has revealed shocking details. The conditions inside Dr. Gosnell's clinic as reported in the grand jury report are ghastly enough to rank him with Dr. Eduard Wirths, who directed the medical research at Auschwitz.

That only one woman died as a direct result of the man who kept souvenirs of the abortion procedures is nothing short of miraculous.

For those women who did not die, however, they faced terrible consequences. From the grand jury report, “Gosnell simply sent a patient home, after keeping her mother waiting for hours, without telling either of them that she still had fetal parts inside her.”

During a different abortion, another woman began convulsing, but “Gosnell wouldn't call an ambulance, and wouldn't let the woman's companion leave the building so that he could call an ambulance.” In another, “a nineteen-year-old girl was held for several hours after Gosnell punctured her uterus.”

In two of these situations, the women had a companion, likely willing to advocate on their behalf. Dr. Gosnell actively prevented them from doing so, in one case lying to the mother and in another not allowing a friend to leave to call an ambulance. He endangered these women's lives so he could continue mutilating and sterilizing other women.

If knowledge is power, these women were completely at his mercy. They, and their companions, were victims because they did not feel as if they had choices, did not know the medical procedures and risks involved, and did not speak up for their right to sanitary conditions.

Anyone who talks about abortion policy is shouted down for being against women's rights. What about these three women's rights? They did not deserve the compounded filth from 17 years without inspection. Had someone enforced the rules on the books, this man could have been stopped decades ago.

Pro-choicers: it is time to stop being politically correct. Women's lives are at stake. What are the conditions like in your local abortion clinic? When was the last time they were inspected?

Pro-lifers: unite with your pro-choice sisters and brothers. This is common ground: you both love women. To show them how much you love each life, born and pre-born, you must work with them.

Good can be brought out of this terror. Regardless of anyone's thoughts on abortion, we can all agree: no woman deserves to be abandoned after a botched procedure of any kind.

Use this trial to build common ground with pro-choice friends and family. We can all mourn the loss of life at the hands of this monster, and demand better standards for our friends, sisters, wives and mothers.